Ciara Ní Reachtnín / Sligo

Ciara Ní Reachtnín is an Irish designer living in the wilds of the West of Ireland with her four children, husband and two crazy dogs. When not knitting, Ciara is busy with her day job as a multi-grade primary school teacher in a tiny rural school.

She likes to promote and use Irish wool and yarn wherever possible, but loves any quality squishy skein. Ciara also writes about her yarny adventures on anirishknitodyssey.wordpress.comand is on Ravelry
She is a regular contributor to UK magazine Knit Now as well as online knitting magazines like Knitting and Knitty. Ciara also publishes her own patterns independently on Ravelry as well as designing exclusive patterns and workshops for KnittingTours.com.
Ciara, like most Irish pupils learned to knit (badly) while in primary school. Her first knitting project was a bubblegum pink hair band with lots of holes, which was completed by her Nana. Many years later, Ciara picked up the needles again after the birth of her third child. She quickly re-taught herself from knitting books and internet tutorials. After realising that she would never follow a pattern, she decided to start designing her own.

She likes to design accessories such as shawls, hats, cowls, socks and gloves as well as children’s garments. She likes to promote all things Irish and most of her designs have Irish names. Ciara is passionate about using Irish yarn in her designs. Many of her designs are based on Irish yarn or yarn from independent Irish dyers.
In her designs and workshops for KnittingTours.com, Ciara is inspired by the myths and legends of Celtic Ireland. Her Deirdre na nDólás (Deirdre of Sorrows ) shawl design was inspired by the story of the tragic lovers Deirdre and Naoise while her current Sionann shawl design is based on the Celtic mythology tale of the creation of the River Shannon. Both designs incorporate some of Ciara’s favourite design elements of cables, twists, beads and lace edgings, all of which will be part of the workshop which she delivers.